Before I Could Make the Call

A librarian from another town, 30 miles away, had asked for help locating a pioneer grave that may have been on land I grew up on.

As my father was deceased, I had looked up his old boss from the ranch, who was just as familiar with the land as I was. I had found his phone number, written it on a Post-it note, and attached it to my monitor to call later that day.

No more than 45 minutes or so later, he walked into my work area by chance. He had dropped his wife’s car off a couple of blocks away and decided to stop at our library to look around.

I hadn’t seen him in nearly 25 years, and the timing seemed too coincidental to be a moment of chance.